Fancy's Child
by Dragonsdaughter
Summary: You might be prepared to walk away to protect your most important person. But you're never ready.
1. Star Crossed

**Fancy's Child**

_A Rurouni Kenshin Fan-fiction_

By The Dragon's Daughter

* * *

**Chapter One**

Star-Crossed

* * *

_And sing to those that hold the vital shears;  
And turn the adamantine spindle round,  
On which the fate of gods and men is wound_.  
- John Milton '_Arcades'_

* * *

"…_or fairy elves whose midnight revels by a forest side or fountain, some belated peasant sees_…" 

Kaoru pivoted. Her silvery blade flashed blue in the burgeoning light. The damp grass squealed underneath the soles of her sneakers. He imaginary enemy parried and she drew back for counterattack. A perfect block.

"..._or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon sits arbitress, and nearer to the Earth wheels her pale course_…"

Early morning mist curled around the edges of her lawn. The forest beyond still lay cloaked in the shadows of night. At the very edges of her perception she could feel the lesser fair folk gathering to watch, gnomes mostly along with a few wood sprites. She could feel their attention prickling at her skin. They were curious, but even this strange interlude would last no longer than an afternoon in their capricious memories. The lesser fae were like that. They lived for the moment and nothing else existed. Sometimes Kaoru envied them that.

"_They, on their mirth and dance intent, with jocund music charm his ear; At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds_."

A sudden absence in the woods alerted Kaoru to the presence of another just as the back door creaked open. Her foot slipped in the grass and Milton fled her mind. The sword in her hand quivered a second before vanishing like the mist around her. She had the sneaking suspicion that it had been laughing at her.

"Kaoru? Are you back here?"

Kaoru stifled the urge to swear and turned to wave at her live-in boyfriend. "Good morning!"

Kenshin stood on the back porch in nothing but a rumpled pair of flannel pajama bottoms. They were a size too big. As usual he'd forgotten to tie the drawstring and the pants dangled invitingly from his narrow hips. Did he buy them that way on purpose? Kaoru might never know.

He opened his arms to her in invitation and Kaoru stepped into his embrace. This was one of the parts she loved most about living with a man. There was always a cuddle within walking distance. She could smell his aftershave and cologne wafting off his skin and ran a finger across his smooth cheek. "Mmm, nice. Make me a happy woman and never grow a beard, all right?"

"I think I can manage that for you." He tightened his embrace and buried his nose in her hair. She hid a smile in his throat as he inhaled and sighed with pleasure. "Did you change your shampoo? It smells good."

He must have smelled the magic on her. The sword tended to leave behind a signature so strong that even a complete null would notice it in some fashion. "No, but I'm trying a new hair-goo. Maybe that's it?" There was a technical term for the little bottle of viscous liquid that the shop-girl had recommended to her, but Kaoru couldn't think of it. A lot of the minor details of human life still eluded her, but Kenshin tended to not notice. It was rather odd that he'd registered it through scent, but you could never tell with a human…

"Mmm, well keep using it. I like it." A wicked sparkle crept into his warm violet gaze. Kaoru pretended not to notice the hand creeping inside her shift. His hand was warm and she was a little chilled from her workout. "I came out to tell you that breakfast is ready. What were you doing?"

"Oh, just some exercises. You know, yoga and stuff like that. I have this book…" She grinned as Kenshin's eyes glazed over. "Well, there exercises are supposed to make you more flexible. Maybe you should practice with me!"

Kenshin's gaze turned speculative. "Flexible, eh? Come on let's eat. The doctor said you're still under target weight…" He dodged Kaoru's fist with nimble grace and came back grinning.

"That was not the doctor! It was the electronic scale at Wal-Mart! I am at the perfect weight for my height!"

"Oh, was it? I can't remember." Kenshin slipped an arm around her waist. Kaoru let him lead her inside, although the second they got in the door she found the wall up against her back and Kenshin's thigh between her own. "Mmmm, how do I resist you?" His mouth was warm and persuasive. Kaoru indulged in a few seconds of blissful transcendence before nudging him off.

Kenshin pouted and the sight was enough to make her knees go watery. No man should be able to do that with his eyes and his _lips_… he let the moment pass. Instead he let her pass to the table, which was already set. He sat across from Kaoru and reached for the orange juice. "So, what were you practicing with? I could have sworn I saw something in your hands. It glowed." He asked.

"I didn't have anything." She'd gotten very good at little white lies over the course of her lifetime. Kaoru was grateful that here and now in this place that she had no need for more than minor deceptions. 'The Court of the Fair Ones eats, breathes, and drinks falsehood and worships at the altar of Dishonesty. I'm well away from that.' Kaoru smiled as Kenshin's eyes narrowed and ignored the suspicion written on his face. It wasn't her he doubted. He doubted himself even if he wasn't aware of it. The trick was to be natural as if she wasn't concerned whether he chose to believe her over the evidence of his own eyes.

At heart Kenshin was a trusting soul. She could almost see the suspicion drain out of his mind. "I suppose so." He agreed. He turned his attention to the contents of her plate and cocked a brow at her as if to ask 'why aren't you eating more?'

"So what is on the agenda for today?" Kaoru took another bite of cereal as she waited. There had been a minor war when they first moved in together. Kaoru had only been in the human world for a short while, although Kenshin didn't know that. However she had a warrior's love for simple, easily prepared food. Cold cereal and milk with fruit was her customary morning meal. Kenshin on the other hand wanted to cook in the mornings. After a few days of pancakes and waffles Kaoru had struck an agreement. He could go out on the weekends, but during the week they would just have granola and yogurt.

Kenshin looked up from his meal. A drop of milk trembled at the corner of his mouth. Kaoru eyed it mournfully as he caught it with a quick brush of the tip of his tongue. "Well, I was going to stop by the grocery after breakfast…" He frowned at the sudden hope on Kaoru face. "No, you may not come."

"... but Kenshin…' Kaoru trailed off as he cocked a brow.

"I remember what happened the last time I let you into a grocery store." He snorted. "If there is anything you want then I'll get it –within reason. No frozen food, no canned meals, no shelf-stable entrees, and absolutely NO ramen."

"Oh, now that's not fair! I don't know what you have against pre-packaged food, but some of us appreciate the convenience." Kaoru tried to kick up under the table, but the annoying man had his legs tucked up on the seat. He smiled his infuriating 'You-can't-Win' smile and took a sip of his coffee.

"If you're good while I'm gone then I'll make you a nice bowl of fresh noodles with some nice marinated tofu and fresh vegetables for supper." Kenshin promised as she glowered into her cereal.

"It's not the same!" Kaoru snapped.

Kenshin smiled as he stood and took his bowl to the sink. "Yes, it's _good_ for you. That is the difference. I want you to live a long healthy life, Kaoru. You aren't going to do that on junk food. Now, have you thought of anything you would like while I'm out? Anything you need?" He took the list off the refrigerator door and held a pencil at the ready. This was her chance to claim any feminine products or personal needs.

"Ice cream. You can't deny me that. It's got milk in it and it's proven soul food!" Kaoru was relieved as he jotted it down. Evens to odds said he'd come home with frozen yogurt, but it was _something_. "Oh, corn chips and the usual… um, are you getting white bread or wheat?"

'What do you think?' said the expressive eyebrow. He was right. That was a foolish question. He'd come home with a three-dollar loaf of whole grain wheat bread and she'd have to be happy with it.

"Is that it?" He asked one more time.

"That's all I can think of… that you'll actually buy." She spotted the look on his face and cut him off. "No, I don't need any sanitary products or facial wash OR shampoo and I have PLENTY of perfume. Really, Kenshin, sometimes I think you don't let me shop because I can make it home within two hours."

"Mmm… and yet I only have to shop once or twice a month whereas you had to go out just about every day." Kenshin set down the shopping list and came over to drop a kiss on her mouth. "That's fine when you live in the city, but you my little love live twelve miles from nowhere. I've got no problem living out here with you, but it's half a tank of gas just to get to town, much less driving around and coming home. So give me a kiss to think on while I'm out and go work on your book. I'll be back around three."

"What need a man forestall his date of grief, and run to meet what he would most avoid?" Kaoru murmured as she drew him down. Soft red hair tangled in her fingers. He responded to her chaste kiss with a growl. Kenshin leaned her back in her chair and slammed his mouth back down on hers. His tongue slid against hers exploring and claiming every inch it touched.

All too soon that kiss ended and Kenshin drew back. His breathing was ragged and uneven. Kaoru suppressed a smug little smile. She liked having that effect on him. "_Areopagitica?_" He guessed and groaned when she shook her head.

"_Comus_." She corrected him. "Close, though. You still don't win the award."

"Damn." He grinned. "Oh well, in that case…"

Kaoru gasped as he scooped her up and made for the stairs. "Kenshin! I thought you were going shopping? Put me down!"

"You know how I like it when you quote esoteric literature at me. Shopping can wait an hour or two…" Kenshin mounted the stairs two at a time. She envied him his ability to do that, but at the moment she was distracted.

"An hour…?" Kaoru gulped. "… but Kenshin, we just last night…"

"Mmm, that was last night." He nuzzled her throat. They reached the upper landing and he pushed their bedroom door open with a hip. "Have pity on me, Love. I'm going to brave the world of holiday shopping! It's almost Christmas. The traffic is going to be murder, won't be back for hours… can't last that long without you."

"_Danu's pubic_…" She caught herself before the obscenity got past her teeth. "God, Kenshin, you went twenty-eight years without me. Tell me you can go a day or so without spontaneously combusting?"

Kenshin was far too occupied with unbuttoning her blouse to pay attention to her abbreviated swearing. "Yes, I know. Frightful time. I have no clue how I lived without you, but that's no reason I should deny myself now." The pale yellow fabric parted to reveal her breasts in their pale blue bra to his hungry gaze. "Just because I was starving then doesn't mean I should ignore a feast right before my eyes." His voice was hoarse. "I think I should take my fill while I can… never know when the bounty will be gone." That last was almost too low for her to make out.

A chill settled in the pit of Kaoru's stomach. She reached up and pulled Kenshin down over her. His mouth settled over hers and it felt like home. The bed creaked as she pushed him onto his back and straddled his waist. "You're right." She purred. "You never know…"

'I could lose him tomorrow and never know it.' Human lives were so brief. They burned so bright that sometimes Kaoru wondered if they burned themselves out. '…but I am not the same. My life… one day I will have to leave or else risk watching him grow old and die before my very eyes while I'm still young.' Kenshin's skin tasted faintly of salt at his throat. 'I wasn't the only one sneaking in some early morning warm-ups.' Kaoru traced a meandering line of butterfly kisses down his throat, over his collarbone, and down to his chest.

Kenshin gasped as her teeth grazed his nipple. "No teasing!" He growled as Kaoru murmured something noncommittal. "Damn it, Kaoru… ohgod…" He broke off as Kaoru switch her attention from his chest to his stomach. Kenshin tried to lever himself up, but she got there first. His body seized under her mouth. A strangled groan worked free of his throat as she delved her tongue into his navel.

"So sensitive." She purred. Kenshin said something incomprehensible. He was probably agreeing with her. She slipped her fingers underneath the waistband of his pants and the world turned upside down. Kenshin growled and flipped her on her back.

He never had been one to let her have the upper hand for long without turning the tables.

Karou's eyes flew open as his hand slipped into her pants and coherent thought fled her mind for good.

… when Kenshin turned the tables he did it with interest.

* * *

She looked so beautiful when she was asleep. 

Kenshin sat on the bed and watched his lover sleep. Kaoru's long dark hair spread over the pillow making his fingers itch to run through that heavy silk. Her mouth was dark and rosy, swollen from his kisses. The wine colored sheets contrasted against her pale skin and brought out the pale rose in her cheeks.

'If it didn't mean that I'd have to wake her up I might just stay here for the afternoon.' Kenshin traced the outline of her heart shaped face.

So this was love. Strange, from everything he'd heard about it he'd thought it would be more terrifying. Kaoru's nude body made interesting shapes beneath the sheets tangled around her. With regret he eased his weight off the bed and retrieved the comforter from off the ground and spread it over her slumbering form. The thick quilt hid her from his sight, but their activities left burning impressions in his memory. It would have to be enough to last him while he had to be out.

"Sweet dreams, darling." He leaned over the bed to brush a gentle kiss over Kaoru's mouth. She murmured in her sleep and burrowed underneath the blankets with a small smile that made his heart clench.

'Maybe I can wait a little while longer…' As if on cue the flesh between his shoulder blades began to crawl. Kenshin released a slow shuddering breath. No, he couldn't wait any longer. He'd already delayed far too long. 'I should have gone yesterday, but Kaoru was just so…' He shivered as he remembered the sight of her slow dancing in the living room when she'd thought she was alone. That had been more than he could resist and dancing with Kaoru only had one result…

Kenshin dressed and retrieved his keys from the kitchen counter. After a quick check to make sure he had his wallet he went to the garage and started up his truck.

The truck was new. He'd bought it shortly after meeting Kaoru. As much as he'd loved his old BMW it just didn't make the trip to and from town so well. The truck was far sturdier and had the added benefit of allowing him to haul things.

There was only a fair crust of snow on the lawn as he pulled out. Kenshin wasn't afraid of ice on the roads near his home. A faint slightly fanged grin tugged at his mouth. He'd made sure no ice or snow dared stay on the dark asphalt for more than a few seconds. If anyone thought to ask he said he was a fervent Salter. The truth was somewhat more _interesting_.

As soon as he was out of sight of the house Kenshin pulled the truck over and killed the engine. It really was too far to drive into town. Fortunately, he knew how to cheat.

Kenshin leaned back in his seat and let his will infuse every fiber of the truck around him. He knew where he was going, barely needed to visualize anymore. The route from there his parking space in Aoshi's garage was worn into the Aether and the truck almost transported itself.

The substance of reality crinkled under his touch like tissue paper and the transit was marked only by a change of scenery and a brief falling sensation. The truck settled on the concrete floor and Kenshin unfastened his seat belt.

Aoshi was sitting in a plastic lawn chair by the kitchen door and looked up from his newspaper as Kenshin locked up the track and started to unzip his jacket. "You put it off this week. Were you busy?" He looked away as Kenshin's shirt fluttered to the ground.

"No, but Kaoru can be very distracting." Kenshin leaned his head back and just let go. There was pain at first, but it was good pain. It was like finally breaking the crick in his neck. Muscles stretched, snapped, and reshaped itself as a pair of wet bloody black wings slipped free from his back. Blood splattered on the concrete floor, but a Word of command banished them. "Oooohhh…" He sighed in relief. "That's better."

When fully extended, each of Kenshin's wings was easily as big as he was. Kenshin arched his back and stretched his wings out as far as he could in the admittedly spacious garage. Aoshi was kind enough to wait until he was done.

"You'd save yourself a great deal of trouble if you just told her." The Ice Demon observed as Kenshin furled his wings and worked a few subtle cleansing spells to scrub away the congealing blood that matted his feathers together.

"If she knows then I will lose her." Kenshin growled. "I refuse to jeopardize the relationship for something so minor as my own physical comfort. Until I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that she can love me as I am then she won't find out."

Aoshi was too good to let his emotions register on his usual implacable expression, but Kenshin thought he caught a flash of consternation in the depths of his friend's steel blue eyes. "It is your choice. Would you like to come inside? Misao made lunch."

"Thank you, but I ate a late breakfast with Kaoru." It was a lie, but Kaoru never remembered to eat until he got home. Even when she did she never did produce anything edible. The only thing in the kitchen that could be eaten cold was a half-empty package of cinnamon rice cakes. Somehow he thought that wouldn't last her long.

"Is that you, Himura?" Kenshin broke out into a smile as a tiny woman with long iridescent black hair bounced into the garage from the kitchen door. She threw herself at him and he caught her in both hands. Aoshi would permit him to pick her up and spin her, but embraces were forbidden. Kenshin understood perfectly. He still had problems letting even his closest friend shake hands with Kaoru. Demons tended to be somewhat possessive.

"Hello, Misao." He settled her back on her feet and eyed the bright pink frilly apron she wore. "Where did you get that? Better yet, can it be returned?"

"Silly!" She smacked him on the arm. "It's my favorite one! Did you bring Kaoru with you? Oh…" She looked behind him and took in the sight of his great black wings looming behind and above him. In the dim light his eyes glowed faintly and when he smiled she could see fangs. "It's one of those visits, then? Well you're going to have to bring her by eventually! I want to see the woman who brought Battousai to heel."

"Misao." Aoshi chided, but Kenshin waved it off.

"Kaoru stayed home. We don't shop together. She always sneaks junk into the basket." Kenshin suppressed the urge to grimace. Kaoru's eating habits were unfortunate. She'd fill up on starches and sugar then later on she'd wonder why she got dizzy and suffered headaches. She was too athletic to be pulling those stunts with her body. Humans just weren't meant to take that kind of abuse indefinitely. It was bad enough hat she didn't like to eat red meat. Even fish was pushing it. Getting protein into that woman was an uphill battle every step of the way.

"I've got beef stew on the stove if you'd like some?" Misao eyed Kenshin's lean stomach. "Not to insult your lady friend, but you're a chaos demon. You need more than just the protein in meat. There's nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, but…"

"No, it's all right. Kaoru doesn't mind if I eat meat as long as she doesn't have to watch." Kaoru didn't react so well to the taste, sight, or even smell of raw meat. She'd turn green if he even mentioned a desire for steak. She tried of course. There had been that spectacular failure of a barbeque attempt that had her in the bathroom throwing up for the rest of the evening. "I've read up on it. Some humans just can't tolerate the stuff, but she doesn't see any need for me to abstain."

"It's probably psychogenic." Misao shrugged. "Oh well, it's probably best that she didn't come. That way you can get your fix. Are you staying for dinner as well?" Misao's face fell as Kenshin shook his head.

"I've got the groceries to get home. Besides, I'd rather not leave Kaoru to her own devices for a while." He pursed his lips and thought back to what he'd seen that morning. No mistake, she'd had something glowing in her hands and it had glowed bright enough to leave trails in the early morning light. However when he announced his presence the glowing had stopped and her hands were empty. "Call me crazy, but I've had the feeling that the house is being watched. Nothing ever disturbs the wards, but…"

Aoshi let Kenshin pass into the kitchen ahead of him. The doors were built at an appropriate height and width to allow for wings so Kenshin didn't have to duck in order to enter. That was one of the benefits of visiting Aoshi. The ice demon didn't need to release his secondary attributes as often as Kenshin did. Control was more in his nature, but the house was still arranged so that one might move about in whatever form was most comfortable and everything low enough for Misao to reach without having to resort to levitation.

"Perhaps there are creatures in the forest around Kaoru's home?" Aoshi suggested. Kenshin took a seat at the kitchen table while Aoshi spooned up a bowl of Misao's sukiyaki. Thick fragrant sauce coated the thinly sliced beef and mushrooms. This time she'd added the cabbage, but left out the tofu. Kenshin didn't mind that. That was the one thing he'd never miss about Japan: the unceasing parade of tofu. Bleargh.

"It's possible. 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio…' Still, I can't help but be nervous. Kaoru's so fragile and I can't take the risk that something might…" He trailed off and stared into his soup. "She doesn't even know how fragile she is. I could shatter her with a brush of my wings and she'd never know what hit her." Kenshin watched Misao as she bustled around the living room, safely out of earshot. "How do you stand it? This constant knowledge that anything at all might take her from you…?"

"It helps that she's not human." Aoshi's pale blue eyes followed his mate. "Not that being a minor imp really helps matters, but at least I don't need to fear time taking her from me. Misao is wise enough to keep out of serious trouble and strong enough to deal with the minor sort. Still, it is never easy."

Kenshin bristled at Aoshi's casual reference to Kaoru's mortality, but he forced himself to calm down. There was a way around everything and Aoshi knew it. 'I just have to find a way.' Kenshin dug into his stew with appetite. He'd been sneaking in some hunting while Kaoru slept, but raw squirrel didn't compare to tender beef tenderloin in tangy soy sauce.

Yes, there was always a way around everything and Kenshin had vowed not to rest until he found a way around Kaoru's lifespan.

'She's mine.' Kenshin's fangs lengthened in proportion to his agitation. 'She's mine forever and nothing, not even time will take her from me without going over my cold dead body.'

* * *

It was close to noon when Kaoru woke up once more. 

Kenshin's scent wafted up from the sheets to tease her nose, but when she checked she couldn't detect his aura anywhere on the grounds. He must have gone shopping while she was asleep. She indulged in a moue of disappointment. "He could have woken me up…" She muttered. "Now I've slept half the day away."

Damn man.

Her clothes was scattered through the house between the kitchen and the bedroom. She wasn't in any mood to go naked looking for them, but it seemed wasteful to put on a fresh set when she'd only worn the previous one for an hour at most. 'Well, no one is home and Kenshin shouldn't be back for hours yet…'

That was plenty of time to get her clothes back together and sneak in some more intense practice. She'd barely made it through the first book of 'Paradise Lost' before she lost control of her weapon. Half the trouble of wielding Lucien was maintaining the level of concentration required to keep him corporeal. Kaoru personal goal was to keep him manifest as long as it took recite 'Paradise Lost' and complete an entire Sword Dance at the same time. If she could do that then she would be able to face _anything_.

A shower could wait until after she'd finished her work out. There was no point in getting clean and then getting dirty all over again. After taking a stab at making the bed, Kaoru decided that it would take longer than she wanted to take to unsnarl the sheets (which needed to be changed in any event) so she settled for tossing the comforter over the bed and left for downstairs.

Her panties were waiting for her on the top landing and she paused to wiggle back into them. Her shirt was on the stairs halfway up and she tossed it on without bothering to button it up. She still had a bra lurking around here somewhere…

The rest of her clothing lay scattered through the kitchen and living room. Kaoru's bra was dangling off the garage doorknob. Her blue jeans were closer so Kaoru jumped into them first and went for her bra with the intent to put it on and button up her shirt so she could tuck it in before she zipped up her pants.

It was a logical plan, except when she reached the garage door swung open and away from her questing hand. Kaoru blinked and looked up into Kenshin's equally startled gaze. He stood before her with several white plastic bags dangling from one hand forgotten as his violet gaze –slowly turning saffron- raked her body taking in her state of dishabille.

Well, this was awkward…

"Um, welcome home?"

Kenshin's eyes went from saffron to honey and straight into molten amber. Kaoru stifled the urge to swear as a familiar smirk tugged at his expressive mouth and that damn eyebrow rose in a comment all its own. "I feel _very_ welcomed, Darling." Very slowly he lowered his burden to the ground and prowled forward. "Let me express my gratitude."

… so much for practice.

* * *

"It's your own fault that the frozen yogurt melted." 

Kaoru stopped putting groceries away just long enough to stick her tongue out at Kenshin, who was busy trying to find where his boxers had gotten to. Kaoru could see them under the kitchen table, but if he was going to act smug then he could just wander around bare-assed.

… although, if she were being honest with herself then she would have to admit it wasn't entirely about teaching him the evils of conceit. "…and when night darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.." She smiled as Kenshin blinked at her in confusion.

"_Lycidas_?" He guessed and growled when Kaoru shook her head.

"Paradise Lost." She corrected him, but was unprepared for him to pause, blink, and then burst into helpless laughter.

"That one I should have been able to guess." Kenshin sighed through a smile and wiped away a tear of mirth with the heel of his hand. "That one I deserved to lose. When in God's Infinite Goodness did you memorize all of Milton's works? Better yet, why do you still remember them?"

Kaoru smiled. She got that question a lot, but not so much as she had in the Courts. There no one had been able to understand her veneration for a human author. Milton wasn't her only literary love, but he was one of her favorites. Humans…there was a reason she loved Kenshin so much: that ability to cram eons of knowledge into a few seconds of intuition –and when they put that into verse. It made her spirit want to soar.

"I just like his work. There's nothing special about that. That young girl who lives at the Henderson place can recite every song Rob Thomas ever wrote from memory. You are just frustrated because you will never manage to win our bet until you actually read the books." Kaoru eyed a shrink-wrapped summer sausage with mixed feelings. She couldn't deny Kenshin the right to eat meat, but neither could she understand his adamant refusal to let her have ramen noodles when he routinely consumed not only meat, but also meat of a distinctly dubious nature. 'Hickory Farms' or not, Kaoru was positive that the spices disguised all kinds of indiscretions. Still, she stored it along with his carefully horded supply of hot dogs and sandwich meat. "…hypocrite…"

"I heard that!" Kenshin commented from somewhere deep inside the pantry. A few minutes later he stuck his head out. Kaoru pursed her lips at the dirty smudged over his nose the cobweb that had gotten stuck in his hair. Luckily it did not come with a spider. "We really need to clean in here. It's disgusting."

"Oh, a little dust never hurt anyone and there aren't any bugs." Kaoru had laid down some powerful vermin ward into the foundation of the property when she'd commissioned it. As far as Kenshin knew she'd bought it a year before she met him, but in reality the property had always been in her possession under a variety of names.

"The doctrines of religion are resolved into carefulness; carefulness into vigorousness; vigorousness into guiltlessness; guiltlessness into abstemiousness; abstemiousness into cleanliness; cleanliness into godliness." Kenshin grumbled.

"The Talmud." Kaoru replied after thinking on it for a moment. "The Division of Mishna, I believe."

Kenshin blinked at her. "You're _good_."

She grinned. "I know."

* * *

Taunting Kenshin was one of the few unadulterated pleasures Kaoru had in life. Perhaps it was petty, but she came from a very long line of tricksters. Kaoru felt she was doing well in life if she wasn't dressing up in cloaks and lurking around crossroads in the hopes that the next passerby wouldn't solve her riddle so she could turn him into something small and amusing. She had an Aunt somewhere who still did that every once and a while for the nostalgia. 

To be fair, Kenshin didn't seem to mind over-much. In fact he seemed to derive some kind of humor out of their games. 'Well he would have to in order to be attracted to me at all.' She smiled as she watched him make lunch. He'd found his boxers and blue jeans, but hadn't bothered with his shirt. Instead he wore his dark blue apron over his bare chest. 'That shouldn't be nearly as sexy as it is…'

He was probably well aware of the effect he was having on her, although she doubted he'd done it on purpose. Kenshin was like that. There was no doubt that he would milk the situation for all it was worth. As if on cue he set down he spatula and laced his fingers together over his head. Then, as though he had no ulterior motives whatsoever, he stretched his back in one long languid motion. Kaoru could hear his vertebrae crackle from where she stood. Then he dropped his arms, rolled his shoulder, and tossed an artless smile in her direction.

Kaoru snorted at him. "Exhibitionist." She teased.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you are talking about." Kenshin replied in an almost prim tone while he flipped the two cheese and herb sandwiches in his skillet. "_I_ was just stretching my back, you dirty-minded woman."

"Suuuure you were." Kaoru grinned as he flicked her an annoyed glance. She batted wide guileless eyes at him, which made him roll _his_ eyes in disgust. "… but I still love you."

"That's good. It makes keeping you forever and _ever_ much easier." Kenshin grinned and leaned over the counter to brush his mouth against hers. "I love you too, beautiful."

"Forever is a long time, Himura." She teased him. "Will you still love me when I'm old and my hair's all gray. Imagine being shackled to a toothless old hag, will you still love me then?"

Something deep and amber-tinged flickered through his eyes. If Kaoru didn't know better she might have thought it was anguish, but he seemed so _resolute_. "_Yes_."

His forceful reply cut through Kaoru's light mood. For a long moment they sat there staring at one another. There was something in Kenshin's face that Kaoru couldn't even begin to describe. It was pain, longing, and fear all at once. Then he blinked and it was all gone as though it had never been. His smile slammed into place like a storm shutter. "What about you, Kaoru? Will you love me when I'm a senile old fool?" His eyes twinkled with false merriment, but there was genuine sentiment somewhere hidden deep in his expression.

"I will always love you." Kaoru replied truthfully. She didn't need to think about it. This was one subject that she'd gone over with a magnifying lens, dissected, and put back together again. She knew the truth. "Such sober certainly of waking bliss." Kaoru added with a smile.

Kenshin's brow creased. "_An_ _Apology for Smectymnuus_?" He guessed and swore when she shook her head once again.

"_Comus_, Kenshin. It was from _Comus_."

"I am going to win this bet, Kaoru." Kenshin yelped as the scent of burning bread wound through the kitchen and spun to turn the sandwiches. He glared irritably over his shoulder as Kaoru favored him with a beatific smile.

"If you say so, darling."

* * *

End Chapter One: Star Crossed

* * *

_Seiyuu: This is a new one. All the quotations in this are from John Milton unless otherwise cited. The passages in the beginning are specifically from Paradise Lost, Book One._

_12-15-2005_

_edit My darling Ravyn has pointed out a minor plot hole to me. I didn't decide until later in the chapter to make Kaoru a vegetarian. However when I went through making corrections I missed the passage whenKenshin and Kaoru are discussing Ramen and he offers her a 'nice bowl of noodles and lean beef'. I apologize. It's fixed now. I don't know how well it works out that he's made her tofu when he clearly dislikes it, but just take it as his devotion to her._


	2. Hubris

**Fancy's Child**

_A Rurouni Kenshin Fan-fiction_

By The Dragon's Daughter

* * *

**Chapter Two**

Hubris

* * *

Good luck befriends thee, Son; for at thy birth  
the fairy ladies danced upon the hearth.  
- John Milton '_At a Vacation Exercise in the College'_

* * *

_In the dawn of time we were the first children of Danu, the Earth Mother. We are the ancients, the eternal race of Gods and Kings._

_You know us as the Fairies, Elves, and the Little Folk. Your legends hail us as the 'Faerie' and the 'Baen Sidhe.' We are more this. We are beyond your comprehension._

_We are the Tuatha de Danaan._

_At the wheel of Time turned other races were born of our mother and our younger siblings began to crowd us. All too soon came the day when we abandoned our ancestral homes in the Fields of man to retreat Underhill to a world of our own making._

_The World belonged to us first. It will belong to us again._

_Time is on our side._

_We need only be patient._

* * *

"I have been robbed!"

Daghda winced as the tranquility of his hall shattered beyond all repair. "Yes, Lord Dispater. We _know_." He sighed without even having to look at the uninvited guest who stalked down the elegantly appointed length of Daghda's receiving court. There was a water clock hidden discreetly in by the entrance where Daghda could look at it periodically through Grievances. It confirmed what he already knew. He would not be receiving his subjects for another two hours. His Seneschal stirred at his side, but Daghda waved her back. Dispater would not leave gracefully when he felt he was being slighted.

Dispater cut a dashing figure in his elegant black robes. Daghda could understand how the man had attracted something of a cult following in Rome. The man had that classically beautiful profile that the Romans adored and short tightly curled hair. Unfortunately he'd gotten far too used to the worship.

Most of the Tuatha de Danaan had moved along with the times. They were not bound to the Fields of Man by any means, but the human race had a flair for fashion that few among the Fairest Folk could match. Some of the younger members of their race theorized that it had to do with the constant influx of new blood to the industry and Daghda was inclined to agree with them. However Dispater clung to the forms and styles of centuries gone by. Even Daghda was turned out in an elegant pin-stripe suit designed by Prada. His Seneschal, Lady Rosmerta, was gowned in Dolce and Gabanna.

"… and yet the thief makes free with my property while you do _nothing_!" Dispater spat coming to a halt before Daghda's throne. His robes swirled around his legs in a melodramatic fashion that Alan Rickman really had done better in the Harry Potter series. In fact, come to think of it Dispater had acquired that annoying habit right around the time the first movie had come out. Interesting…

Rosmerta bristled. "Insolence!" She spat and Dispater flinched. "Know your place!"

"Forgive me, my Lord… my Lady." He bowed to Daghda and Rosmerta in turn with appropriate levels of obeisance. "I am distressed at the loss of my property. I have a sacred duty entrusted to me and I cannot fulfill my role without my symbol of office. The Sword of Light…"

"All reasonable efforts are being made to locate Lucien!" Daghda snapped.

Rosmerta snapped and two of her personal rangers stepped out of the shadows to flank Dispater. "You will be apprised of further developments, Lord Dispater." She informed him in a chill tone that even had Daghda sitting up straighter. "If you have any _new_ concerns then they will wait until the proper hour for Grievances. Good day, sir."

Dispater's mouth opened and then closed. His dark eyes traveled sideways to the rangers' oppressive presences and straightened his shoulders. "Thank you for your time, Lord Daghda." He murmured, but nothing could hide the viperous dissatisfaction simmering in his gaze as he was escorted off the premises.

"Well, that was unpleasant." Daghda sighed and flopped back into his throne. He scowled at the small desk that had been arranged in front of him and the papers on it. All at once he was no longer in the mood to sort through all that tedious minutiae. "Is there any news on Lucien and… his abductor?"

Rosmerta's lush mouth thinned into a harsh line. She turned her face so that her long inky black hair shielded her eyes from her Lord. "There is no news of my daughter. She has not contacted me and my agents have not been able to find any trace of her."

A queer sort of pain lanced through Daghda's chest. Kaoru had been little more than a palace fosterling even though he _suspected_… _hoped_ that she might be… "Have there been any signs of foul play?" Lady Rosmerta's daughter took after her in more ways than one. She was fierce and independently minded. It was not inconceivable that the young woman could manage to remain undetected so long, especially if Daghda was correct in his suspicion that the situation had been less that of Kaoru abducting Lucien and more the other way around.

"No, for which I am thankful." Rosmerta sighed. Still without looking him in the eye she began to shuffled papers and stack them neatly. "I do not believe my daughter is a thief, but I cannot vindicate her unless she comes forward. What she fears among our numbers, I cannot say. I only wish that she would trust me enough…"

"Kaoru takes after her mother." Daghda chucked Rosmerta beneath the chin and was pleased to see the sparkle of temper in her leafy green eyes. "She always believes her way is the best and only path."

"I fear you are wrong, Lord." Rosmerta turned away with her nose in the air. "My daughter inherits her mulish nature from her father rather than me."

Her back was turned so that she could not see Daghda's hands clench. "… We hope so, my Lady." He whispered. "I hope she has more of her father in her than that."

* * *

Proserpina flinched as a priceless Ming vase shattered against the wall mere feet from her head. Shekept her head bowed and her hands clasped before her as her husband stalked from one end of the room to another.

"I am beset by fools and women!" He seethed.

'He must have lost another fight with Lady Rosmerta.' Proserpina watched her husband with hooded eyes, much the way a sparrow eyes a snake in the grass. For the moment his ire was focused on something other than her, but it only took one innoportune motion or sound to draw his attention. As long as she kept her mouth shut and her guard up then she might make it through the day without a new bruise.

There had once been a time when Proserpina had believed that the root of her husband's behavior were those who constantly opposing him, but now she knew the true root of it. Her husband was not a good man. He was not the man she married and perhaps never had been. He was opposed because he was wrong and he could not accept it with grace. The fault did not lie with Lady Rosmerta or High Lord Daghda or Lord Lugh or any of the hundreds of others who annoyed Dispater on a day to day basis.

The fault lay with Dispater himself.

… and that was why Lucien had left him.

Those were words Proserpina could never speak out loud. That would be inviting a fate worse than death. Like all of her kind she was immortal. Nothing but the Sword of Life could sever her from this existance. For hundreds of years Dispater had held the power of Death in their world. He had gone so far as to advertise this in the Fields of Man, touting himself as 'the God of Death.' Now he was powerless, gelded by a bright eyed young woman with quick hands and a stout heart.

Proserpina composed her thoughts until she was as calm and still as a pond whose surface was never ruffled by the errant wind. What did she fear some minor pain when the power time was once again delivered into her hands? One day she would find a way to divorce herself of her husband… and until then she would _endure_.

* * *

"_Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste brought death into the World, and all our woe, with loss of Eden, till one greater Man restore us, and regain the blissful seat_…" Lucien spun through Kaoru's hands with a life and energy all his own. "_Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire that shepherd who first taught the chosen seed_!"

Kenshin liked to have never fallen sleep. He'd been in fine form today and Kaoru had barely gotten in any practice at all. It was perhaps good that she needed maybe a third of the sleep he did. As much as she loved him and wanted to squeeze in every last second of time she could, Kaoru did treasure her alone time. Lucien was a restful presence when they were not working.

"_In the beginning how the heavens and earth rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed fast by the oracle of God, I thence invoke thy aid to my adventurous song_," Kaoru threw herself into the patterns of her Sword Dance. It was the same pattern that Great Lord Daghda, the All Father, had taught her as a child. Those were the golden days when she'd lived as a fosterling in his Palace with a dozen Aunts and Uncles, all of which had time to hear a young girl's insecurities or take her fishing. Even Lord Daghda himself had been known to play hooky from his duties to show his foster children a few moves. "_That with no middle flight intends to soar above th' Aonian mount, while… while it pursues_…"

Kaoru didn't even realize she was holding back until Lucien flickered in her hands and hot tears scalded her cheeks. Surprise drove her to her knees. Lucien vanished from her hands. "Why am I…" She wiped the moisture from her cheeks and scowled. 'You're still homesick after all these years? Oh, bravo Kaoru.' She chided herself. Home was the land she knelt upon. Home was the man sleeping in her bed. Home was the house she'd kept for close to twenty years. Hadn't she set down roots _yet_?

"_For the whole world, without a native home, is nothing but a prison of larger room_." Kaoru muttered. Enough of this! If she couldn't concentrate then she would go back to bed and watch Kenshin sleep for a while.

"Now that has to be _Samson Agonistes_!" Kenshin commented from behind her.

Kaoru gasped and looked up to find her lover standing on the porch in nothing but his flannel sleeping pants. His hair was loose and ruffled. A sleepy smile graced his face. "I woke up and you weren't in bed." He explained. "Why are you out here?"

"I was looking at the stars." Kaoru lied and hoped her face had dried. Kenshin opened his arms to her and she went gladly into his embrace.

"Ah," was his noncommittal response. Instead he rubbed his hands up and down her bare arms. "You're cold! How long were you out here?" He asked in surprise.

"Not long." She replied and it was true. She'd barely made a dent in the first book of Paradise Lost.

"I see." He led her inside and she happily leaned into his warmth. "So, was I right? Do I win?"

Kaoru blink and then smiled. "Oh, no. That wasn't Milton at all. It was from Abraham Cowley in a letter to the Bishop from Lincoln. Sorry, that one wasn't intended for the bet." She went up on tiptoes to kiss Kenshin's scowl. "I'm sorry, Love. I didn't mean to wake you up. Shall we go back to bed?"

Kenshin snorted and pulled her back for a more thorough kiss. "Bed?" He growled. Amber light kindled in his eyes and a knowing smile promised all sorts of wicked things to come. "What a good idea."

It was a long time before Kaoru fell asleep again.

* * *

Kenshin watched Kaoru sleep.

Not for the first time he was struck by how beautiful she was. If he had been given the power of creation for just one day then he would have been hard put to match her. It was as though she'd been made with him in mind. Kenshin chuckled as he flicked his gaze heavenwards. For all he knew she had been.

'In which case I thank you, whoever you are.' Kenshin buried his nose in Kaoru's fragrant hair. To know that she existed at all, much that she loved him… that was enough to convince him that maybe he was doing something right after all. She was the beginning and the end of his world. '… but if you think I'm giving her up then you can just think again.'

For all that, she'd been acting strange lately. Well, strange _for Kaoru_ in any event. There was no pretending that she was normal by anyone's standard including her own. No, when Kenshin meant 'strange' he meant waking up at insane hours in the morning to do something that involved a glowing stick of some kind. Strange was getting up in the middle of the night to kneel in her back yard and cry… then _lie_ about it.

'I'm being paranoid.' He told himself. After all, he knew the signs to look for when someone was being Tempted and Kaoru displayed none of them. Not to mention that if there was a demon poaching in his territory then Kenshin would _know_. That went double for what went on in his own home.

The glowing stick had him worried, though.

In Kenshin's experience mortals only got their hands on things that glowed without batteries by bartering with Powers Best Not Mentioned.

The sticking point was that Kenshin couldn't imagine a reason why Kaoru would need to make any such bargain. She worked out of the house and made fairly good money that she had invested well. She was beautiful, intelligent, and athletic. Everything she had she'd earned… Kenshin knew because he'd checked. There was no taint of the Infernal on her soul. The only trace of demonic energy he could find on her was his own.

'Why won't you talk to me?' Kenshin wanted to shake his stubborn little woman every now and then in the hopes that it would jar some common sense into her. She had this habit of keeping problems to herself and trying to deal with them on her own. It was stupid really some of the things she hid. They rarely had a problem with bills. Neither of them was scrabbling to make ends meet. More often than not with her it was medical problems. If Kenshin had a penny for every time he heard the phrase 'Oh, it's just a little sniffle/cough/rash/cut. It'll go away in a few days.' then he'd be able to buy out Macy's.

The crying jag was what really had him worried. He could count the times he'd seen Kaoru cry on one hand. He could remember them in perfect detail because he'd wanted to commit murder each and every time. Only once had he gotten to act on that urge. Some women could cry at the drop of a hat, but Kaoru couldn't feign her emotions no matter how much she tried. The best she could manage was 'bored indifference', 'polite distaste', and 'The Shiny Smile of Diversion +10'.

Something was going on, but Kenshin was damned if he could think what. The closest thing he had to a lead was that sensation of eyes in the woods surrounding Kaoru's home, but that feeling had never been malevolent. At best it was curious. At worst it seemed to be afraid _of him_.

"What are you involved in, my little beauty?" Kenshin tucked Kaoru's slumbering body against his chest and sighed into her hair. He hated this feeling… Kaoru needed help. What kind of help, he wasn't sure, but she needed him and he couldn't help her until she chose to ask him.

What was perhaps worse was the dim corner of his soul that was excited. If she already knew about the world of the supernatural then perhaps she could accept his true self. Ironic that he should have that one persistent dream when he already had more than he'd ever dared hope for. 'Foolishness.' He chided himself, but still the idea of being able to wrap his wings around her and nibble her beautiful throat with reverent lips and fangs.

No woman had ever looked on his true form with desire. He'd been made to inspire fear not yearning and he was an idiot to forget it for even a second.

He was even more of a fool to dare hope that just this once he was wrong.

'Should I risk what I have for the hope of something more?' Kenshin's arms tightened around Kaoru in an instinctive attempt to keep her with him.

He didn't know.

… and it was killing him.

* * *

Lady Rosmerta's chambers were not lavish. She did not entertain in her personal space. As Seneschal she could command any room in the Palace that was not in use by the King himself. It had been a very long time indeed since she had shared her space with anyone.

As a palace fosterling, Kaoru had a room in the dormitories and before then she'd had a suite of rooms to share with her nurse. Now Rosmerta stood in her barren rooms and searched for some sign of her absent daughter: a picture, a framed drawing, a cracked vase from a childish indiscretion… and she found nothing.

It was not the way of the Tuatha de Danaan to raise children in a nuclear family setting. The children of lower rank grew up in crèche groups while the children of the higher rings were fostered with Daghda. One of his numerous titles was 'All Father'. Every child in their species was under his care and he looked to them well.

As Seneschal, Rosmerta would not have had time for motherhood.

"… but that is cold comfort." She murmured softly as she crossed over into her sitting room and took a seat in a padded chair she had ordered from Germany the year before. There was a small chest of drawers at her side and Rosmerta opened it with a wave of her hand. Hidden inside the chest was the evidence of a pain she could not hide.

A stolen photograph of Kaoru taken during her schooling years peeked up at her from behind a tattered rag doll. Rosmerta remembered how her child had refused to give it up even for a washing. The nurse had complained that she had to steal it while the child slept and have it back in place before Kaoru woke in the mornings. There was a book of childish paintings in the drawer as well, carefully bound and wreathed with protection spells.

One by one Rosmerta sorted through the small mementoes of her daughter's childhood as though somehow the artifacts could somehow tell her where her daughter had gone.

"Oh, child…" The sidhe woman replaced the photograph and the book of paintings in their drawer, but the doll she kept in her lap as she leaned back into her chair and stared at the blank ceiling of her chamber.

* * *

It was business as usual in the House of Shinomori and Makimachi.

"_Villainous cookie thief_! I demand you return that snicker-doodle _immediately_!"

Aoshi dodged Misao with aristocratic ease as he held the coveted cookie mere centimeters out of Misao's already limited grasp. The small imp scowled at her lover and made another swipe at it. Using only the most minimal movements, Aoshi evaded her clutching hand and popped the sought-after treat into his mouth.

If you were very observant and knew _exactly_ what to look for you would see the twinkle of challenge in his glacier-colored eyes.

Misao scowled. "Bastard! That was my last one!"

A great deal of Aoshi's conversation was sub-vocal and occurred entirely through body language. After multiple centuries of dealing with the infuriating man, Misao could read the layers upon layers of meaning he crammed into a single lift of the eyebrow. "No, I can _not_ make more because I'm out of the ingredients and you _knew_ that!"

"Perhaps." He allowed having chewed and swallowed. Misao's glare slid off him as he sauntered forwards. Misao eyed him warily as he made a lazy circuit around her. His eyes never left her.

Let there be no doubt about it, Aoshi Shinomori was _Up To Something_.

Misao tracked his movements ready to bolt at a moment's notice. It wasn't that she'd mind getting caught, but he'd just eaten her last snicker-doodle. He wasn't due any of That for a good long while. In fact, perhaps she should start making up the couch now…

"Don't _even_ this about it, Shinomori." She ground out through clenched teeth.

"… think about what?" Misao fought not to jump when his breath caressed her neck and earlobe. She stood stock still as long sensitive fingertips trailed down the opposite side of her throat and Aoshi circled around her once more. She would not react. This time she would be as stone. Not even Aoshi could seduce a stone!

'I'm a stone.' Misao chanted that in the sanctity of her mind as Aoshi unbuttoned the first clasp on her blouse and brushed his lips over her collarbones with skin-tingling proximity. 'I'm an ugly stone covered with moss and frogs. Lizards live under me.'

Ever so gently, Aoshi's fangs brushed her pulse-point and Misao's eyes flew wide open. All thought of stones and lichen fled her mind.

_Ding-dong_!

A soft growl trickled out of Aoshi as he glared at the door and tightened his grasp on Misao for a moment. Then after a second he sighed and released her as the bell rang once more. Her back was to him, but Misao could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

'Saved by the bell!' Misao ducked out of Aoshi's grasp only to be brought up short by his hands on her shoulders.

"We're not done yet." He whispered into her ear and released her.

'Stone. Stone. Stone. Stone.' Misao hurried to the door and jerked it open much to the surprise of the dark haired man on the other side. His fist was raised and frozen halfway through a knock. For a second they stared at one another before he laughed first.

"Pardon me! I'm sorry if I interrupted anything." He exuded a natural kind of charm that would have been very gripping if Misao had been human. As it was she'd seen better, but he wasn't bad for a human.

The young man was tall with the sort of careless lanky grace that she saw on magazine covers and runway models. With them it seemed contrived while this man achieved it almost as though he'd been born to it. Long fashionably mussed black hair contrasted well against his pale, pale skin and compelling blue eyes. He flashed her a charming smile and held out a picture. "I'm looking for my sister. She may be somewhere in this area. Do you think you might have seen her around?"

Misao glanced down at the photograph. The woman featured could have been anywhere from seventeen to twenty. She had that ageless quality to her features that made her hard to place. 'She'll have fun being carded for the rest of her life.' Misao mused as she examined the heart shaped face on the glossy print. The girl was definitely related to the man on her doorstep. They had the same eyes and the same thick glossy black hair. The girl had a sweetly heart shaped face that contrasted against her brother's sculpted cheekbones and prominent jaw. "I'm sorry." Misao shrugged her shoulders. She'd have remembered that face. "I don't know her."

There was an almost imperceptible slump to the young man's shoulders, but the smile blinked right back on and he produced a business card with a flick of his wrist. "If you should see her or hear anything my number is right here. I'd appreciate a call. There is a reward for her safe return."

"I'm sure." Misao had never had much patience with the queer human custom of paying out money for a person's safe return when they weren't even being ransomed. She especially had a problem with young men who came to her doorstep to do so, deliberately oozing charm, and expected her to fall for it. 'The girl's probably a runaway.' She decided. Now the question was whether or not she was an underage runaway or a young woman who finally got tired of waiting for her family to support her independence?

Misao closed the door on the young man and turned into the house only to run nose-first into Aoshi's chest. It was instinctual to jump back, but the door sort of blocked that escape route. Fortunately, Aoshi's attention was still focused beyond that barrier of wood and metal to where the dark haired man was no doubt getting back into his expensive sports car.

"Who… was that?" Aoshi's voice was suspiciously neutral, even for him.

"I don't know." Misao spared a moment to be thankful that he seemed to have forgotten his earlier intent. "He said he was looking for his sister and showed me a picture. It was no one I've seen around."

Aoshi made a monosyllabic noise of dissatisfaction and ushered Misao aside.

When he opened the door once more the young man was standing on the walk out by the side of his car. He was talking on a sleek little phone and looked up as Aoshi left the house. The man's expression shuttered and he flipped the phone shut as the Ice Demon approached.

Misao stayed in the entrance mostly because it was warmer there, but also because her hearing was preternaturally keen. She could hear their conversation clear as day even from this distance. Imps had been made to be spies and droppers at the eaves.

"May I see the picture?"

The young man blinked, but obligingly produced the glossy print. Aoshi examined the face there and Misao could see him commit it to memory. Figures. Ice demons were all the same, had to know every little thing that was going on in their territory. Although, odds were that Aoshi knew who the girl was in that case. He made it a point to know everyone in his lands. He shared a border with Kenshin, but they were on good terms. Aoshi would know whether or not to turn the girl in.

Aoshi returned the photo with a shake of his head. The young man sighed and got into his car. Misao watched Aoshi watch the car disappear down the street until it vanished out of sight.

"So, do you know her?" Misao asked as he returned to the door. A nod was his reply. Misao let him back in and shut the door to keep the cold out. "Who is she?"

"A woman I have seen around town." Aoshi sat down on the couch and patted the seat beside him in a meaningful manner. Misao suppressed a smirk and plopped down beside him. Without invitation she burrowed into his side and rested her head on his shoulder. Now that he wasn't being an ass-hole he could have a cuddle. "I believe she resides in Himura's territory. She is usually sighted in the Shopping Centers and drives a blue Jeep Cherokee."

Misao frowned. That certainly wasn't like Aoshi. If someone caught his attention then he'd have a dossier compiled on them by the next day. "What else?" She prodded.

"She is a most strange woman. None of my operatives have been able to follow her for more than a block. Once she leaves your sight she is gone." Aoshi's usual serene expression twisted into a grimace. Misao correctly intuited that her lover spoke from personal experience. "It is my belief that she uses a sort of evasive magick, but the nature of it eludes me. I once got close enough to her to get a feel of her aura and it tasted very much like that young man's."

That would explain his Presence. Misao frowned too as she realized that she was thinking of the man's aura in capital letters. "Does she have that same aura that he does?" Aoshi glanced at her and tilted his head in a request for explanation. "Well, you know… that come-hither glint and unconscious charm. Didn't you sense it?"

A crinkle appeared in Aoshi's brow. Misao knew it well. That crease appeared when Aoshi was handed the second half of a puzzle that had been bothering him. "No. I did not sense such a… Presence in the young man. The woman, however, I did notice something similar in the young woman."

"Huh, it must be gender specific then." Misao laced an arm around Aoshi's stomach. She knew he wouldn't have taken any of that Presence (_flirtation_, her mind whispered) to heart. Still, Aoshi was _hers_ and for the moment she needed to remind herself of that. "Men charm women, women entice men. Interesting. Was she human?"

"I am not entirely sure now." The admission must have cost him some pride. "Having met another creature, shall we say, like her who bears such a striking resemblance to her and carries the same power. Otherwise she appears human."

"So if not human then what? Moreover, why does that gentleman want her?"

Aoshi glanced at her. "The woman has been quiet and causes no trouble in my lands or in Himura's. She has been a resident in this area for several years now. That makes her one of ours. The available data suggests she has been hiding in this area. Ergo, the young man will not find her unless we want him to."

* * *

"Ah… ah… Ah-CHOO!"

"Bless you."

Kaoru sniffed and accepted the Kleenex Kenshin handed her. "I think somebody's talking about me." She blew, wadded up the tissue, and tossed it into the wastebasket. "She shoots… she SCORES!"

Kenshin chuckled as Kaoru jumped onto the couch beside him and threw her arms around his neck. "You're lucky to have me, buster, because I ROCK!" She informed him.

"I am aware of how much you rock." He replied and lifted his book up so she could crawl into his lap, which she promptly did. Kenshin allowed himself a contented sigh as he settled his arms back down around her. "Indeed, I believe that was one of the qualities that originally attracted me to you. I have excellent taste in women and their ability to rock."

"Flatterer." Kaoru laughed as Kenshin slid one hand underneath her thighs and adjusted her position until she was cradled in his arms. "I thought you were reading?"

"I was. It was the strangest thing." He murmured, already distracted by her throat. "Here I was minding my own business, reading my book, and then this incredibly gorgeous woman crawls into my lap. I can't explain it. Suddenly I was no longer interested in the political motivation behind White Water."

"Uh-huh… mmm…" The moment was shattered by the sound of a ringing phone. Kaoru blinked and Kenshin swore. She debated ignoring it for a moment, but the tune identified itself as one of Kenshin's business associates.

Without letting her off his lap, Kenshin dug around in his pocket for the cell phone and flipped it open with an irritable flick of his wrist. "Himura. Shinomori, you'd best have a good… beg pardon? I see." His grip on Kaoru didn't relax or tighten so the news couldn't have been that life impacting, but it seemed to be worth hearing. "Interesting. See if you can get me a copy of that. I'd also like a report of the incident. Yes, I will. Thank you."

Kaoru watched Kenshin's face as he powered down his phone and tossed it to the end of the couch. "What did Aoshi want?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned against his chest. Just a hunch, but judging from that (albeit cute) crinkle between his eyes the mood was broken for the afternoon. Oh well…

Kenshin leaned back in his seat to contemplate the ceiling. "Aoshi lives in town. He called to ask if someone had been by here looking for a runaway." Perhaps it was a good thing that he was looking away. He missed the expression that flickered across Kaoru's face before she stuffed the emotion back behind her eyes. "There's a young man wandering around showing off a picture of a young woman, claiming that she's a runaway." He looked up. "Has he been by here?"

"I haven't seen him." This was fortunately the truth. "Did Aoshi give you a description so I know who to look for?"

"The man is about my height with black hair on the long side and dark blue eyes. The woman he's looking for is about the same. Her hair was cut in a bob in the picture, but that could have changed." Kenshin eyed Kaoru. "If he comes by here while I'm out don't answer the door and call me. Aoshi says he's seen the woman he's looking for around town and doesn't think she's a runaway."

"Well, of course I will. Do you think he's dangerous?" Kaoru reached for her center and drew on her reserve energy in the fight to remain calm. Kenshin was so sensitive to body language sometimes that it frightened her. He could not see the truth in her eyes now, not if she was right and everything was about to come crashing down around their ears. 'Not now. No please. I've only had him for a few years. Don't say it's over so soon. Danu, please… Morrigan, fight for me. Make it not so… not yet!' The frantic little prayer rattled on in the background as Kaoru concentrated on maintaining her mask of composure.

"I don't know, but Aoshi has a copy of the picture in question. The young man let him keep it. I'll go pop over and take a look, see if I recognize her. If one of our neighbors is being stalked I want to know why." Something… different flickered in Kenshin's eyes, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. "I like our neighborhood the way it is: peaceful. I'd like to keep it that way."

"There you go, being all heroic again." Kaoru let a wistful smile trickle past her mask. "It's what I love most about you, but don't get in over your head. Okay?"

"I always am, love." Kenshin pressed a kiss into the hollow of Kaoru's throat and smiled. "You know that."

"I do." She forced a smile. Maybe she was wrong. She'd know for sure once Kenshin left. "I'd better let you up then."

"The sooner I go the sooner I'll be home. " Kenshin grinned that same old heart breaker's smile. "I've got to start dinner, right?"

"Yeah." With great reluctance, Kaoru vacated Kenshin's lap and walked him to the door. She watched him shrug into his jacket and pat down his pockets for the keys to his truck. "Um…" Without waiting to think it out, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. Kenshin's arms went around her waist and he held her tight while they both took in the feel of one another. As all kisses did, it ended all too soon and Kaoru buried her face in his throat. "…_or did the soul of Orpheus sing such notes as, warbled to the string, drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek_?" She whispered.

"_Iconoclastes_?" Kenshin guessed.

Kaoru scowled. "_Il Penseroso!" _She growled.

"Rats." Kenshin snatched another kiss and gave Kaoru one last hug. "See you when I get home. Remember, if that guy shows up give me a call and let me know. No answering the door. In fact, lock them behind me and arm the security system."

"Of course." Kaoru kept her smile going all the way until he closed the door behind him.

Lucien roared to life in the back of her mind and Kaoru allowed herself a little humorless parody of a smile. "I know." She murmured in reply to Lucien's wordless demand. "I'm going."

She could feel Kenshin pulling out of the drive as she descended into the pantry and made her way to the very back wall. Kenshin had always wanted to install a set of shelves there, but couldn't figure out why he couldn't put a decent hole in the bedrock. Kaoru had been able to put him off by telling his it was a marble deposit. Luckily the area had been known for its quarries back in the day so the lie went down easily. The truth was a bit more complicated.

"_Open up_!" Kaoru growled and the living stone squirmed in response to her command. She was a Daughter of Earth. The Tuatha de Danaan were the firstborn children of the Earth Mother, Danu. A faint echo of Danu's dominion over earth existed in all her children and the soil knew its Mistress.

The marble wall folded back to reveal the tiny room hidden within its cold embrace. Faerie fire burned within tiny molded cupolas in the walls to illuminate the glassy pool of water that rested within the center of the room. Kaoru had installed the scrying pool close to ten years ago and only had sparing use for it.

Water was a trickier element, but Kaoru had some natural affinity with it. She could feel Lucien's power throbbing in her chest, just waiting to be directed. Lucien wanted freedom as much as she did. Kaoru drew on the energy the Sacred Blade lent her and channeled it into the pool. "Show me the one who hunts me." The pool had a range of twenty or thirty miles, so odds were good that she'd either get the man with the photo or nothing at all. 'Or I could end up with a complete surprise.'

At this point she was hoping for nothing.

Kaoru felt a little curl of dread in her stomach as the placid water rippled and an image formed in the liquid. A pale face appeared in profile. Kaoru felt sick as she recognized that aquiline nose and narrow chin. She didn't even need to see his eyes to know her brother's face. Nuada hadn't changed much in the past thirty years, but then he rarely did. The man was set in his ways and tended to pick a look that stayed just fashionable enough as to be forgettable.

He was standing in front of Old Mrs. Flatterby's white clapboard house. The elderly woman stood on her front porch, stubbornly resistant to Nuada's natural glamourie while she squinted at a faded photograph. Kaoru rotated the image to get a good look at the picture he was showing. There was a glamour on it to make it appear as a plain snapshot, but when she looked past the thin skin of magic coating the picture she groaned. The picture was an old sepia-toned monstrosity that dated back to the roaring twenties and that disastrous bob she'd let Rosmerta talk her into.

"What you be wanting with her?" Mrs. Flatterby fixed Nuada with a gimlet eye. The cantankerous bat had Old Blood in her and all the petty magicks just slid off her skin. Kaoru wouldn't be surprised if she saw right through the disguise on the photo.

"She's my sister and she's been missing for a long while." Nuada cranked up the charm to the max, but it had no visible effect. "Please, help me find her?"

Mrs. Flatterby scowled. "You b'aint up to any good as I kin see. Get off my lawn, boy! Afore I have the law on you! JIM! Get my rifle!"

Nuada backpedaled as much from Mrs. Flatterby's suddenly hollering as from the threat of Cold Iron. "There's no need… yipe…!" Kaoru watched her brother deftly evade a blow from Mrs. Flatterby's gnarled can. "I'm going! I'm going!"

Kaoru watched Nuada hurry towards the street. With any luck she could get a look at his vehicle and know what to… oh crap.

Just as he neared the end of the walked Nuada faltered and his gaze shot unerringly towards Kaoru. She bolted forward and shattered the image by splashing the water… but not before his triumphant grin leaked through.

* * *

End Chapter Two: Hubris

* * *

Seiyuu: Sorry Chapter Two is so late! I had some writer's block on this one, but here it is! Bear in mind that this is the Rough Draft version! I'm losing my internet tomorrow and I want to get this out there for y'all!

On a completely unrelated note: GO ME! I tied Ravyn for the Romace/WAFF Category in the Rurouni Kenshin Reader's Choice Awards! Thank you so much, everyone who voted for me! I means a lot!


	3. Gloaming

**Fancy's Child**

_A Rurouni Kenshin Fan-fiction_

By The Dragon's Daughter

* * *

**Chapter Three**

Gloaming

* * *

To hear the lark begin his flight,  
And singing startle the dull Night,  
From his watch-tower in the skies,  
Till the dappled dawn doth rise.  
- John Milton '_L'Allegro'_

* * *

Kaoru knew she didn't have long from the moment the phone rang. She didn't even need to check the caller id to know who was calling, but it still felt like she'd been dunked in ice water when Kenshin's voice came over the answering machine.

"Kaoru, honey. Pick up. I know you're there. You have to be. God DAMN it! For once in my life Be Listening and just let her have fallen asleep on the couch! Kaoru, I'm on my way home… _please_, be there when I get home." The machine cut him off as his message grew too long. Kaoru ran her tongue over dry lips and ignored the phone when it started ringing again.

Her knapsack sat packed by the door and she'd already rotated her accounts through Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. After fifty some-odd years of avoiding the IRS she'd written a program that did the work for her. Almost all her information was stored on the portable hard drive that plugged into the front of her computer, but some of it was on the back-up disk hardwired to the motherboard. Kaoru didn't have enough time to wipe it clean, but Kenshin didn't know anyone who could retrieve the data there in time to do any good.

Lucien's agitated murmurs formed a kind of eerie theme music as she frantically threw together her emergency supplies. She kept them arranged through the house, but occasionally Kenshin would find one stash or the other and 'tidy it up.'

It took maybe ten minutes to get everything consolidated and stowed in her knapsack. The ancient leather pack had been hers since she was little. Lord Daghda had placed the expansion spells on the interior himself for her thirty-fourth birthday… Danu's breath, had she really been so little? Tears stung her eyes as the child inside railed at the loss of yet another home.

"QUIET!" Kaoru growled just as Lucien's irritation spiked. "I knew what I was getting into when I accepted your offer, Lucien. Leave me be. I know the sacrifices that I must make; you do not have to remind me, but you cannot deny me time to grieve for them. You do not _dare_!"

Lucien quieted somewhat, but His upset humming did not stop. He had every right to be unhappy. Nuada was close and that meant the Justicars were even closer. How far behind could Dispater be? It had been twenty years since… since that day. None of them would have any mercy for one lone mortal when he could help them regain Lucien. She had to lead them out of the area before they found Kenshin.

Kaoru wrote out what had to be longest short note she'd ever written in her life. She stuck it to the refrigerator door and hoped it would be enough. "Danu, Epona, Morrigan... he deserves so much better than this. He deserved better than me. Help him find someone he can grow old with." She whispered a prayer to the Goddesses she'd almost forgotten and prayed they could still hear her. "Help him find happiness. Oh, goddesses… help me, too. I don't want to go!"

The phone had stopped ringing. Kaoru assumed that meant he was in the truck and on his way here. Kaoru paused to press an invisible kiss against the tiny note. She didn't wear lipstick so he might never know… but it made her feel a little bit better. "I will remember you." She promised. "Wherever I go. Whatever happens to me…no matter how long I live, I will remember you, Kenshin… and I will always love you. Forget me. Forgive me."

Kaoru snatched her keys off the kitchen counter and ducked into the garage. Petite eyed her from the open door and pawed the ground irritably. The poohka was clearly ready to be off. Kaoru supposed she could count herself lucky that the lesser fae still answered her call. Daghda hadn't declared her to be a rogue yet, but he couldn't do that without her present for the Disownment. That was probably one of the many reasons why Nuada was looking for her. Well, if Big Brother thought that Kaoru was going to go back to Court and straight into Dispater's hands then he had another thought coming-- and it was a painful one.

Kaoru armed the security system and locked the door behind her. As Petite stood by, she hid the key under an empty flowerpot and shouldered her bag. "All right, Petite. Let's blow this joint."

* * *

The truck screamed in agony as Kenshin slammed on the brakes. The tires left deep black streaks down the entire length of the driveway. Smoke poured from the chassis as the truck fought to stop short of slamming into the garage door. Kenshin barely waited for it to shudder to a halt before he threw it in park, ignoring the alarming booming knocks from the engine. He nearly took the driver's side door off its hinges when he slammed it open and bolted from the confines of his vehicle.

"KAORU!" He didn't care anymore. She could see him in his full form and he didn't care just so long as she was there to do it. "KAORU!"

He barely even noticed the front door shatter against the hallway wall and the shrieking burglar alarm was only white noise. He stood in the living room where Kaoru was not sitting up on the couch, looking confused. The answering machine was blinking with four unheard messages. The house was empty save for the impotent wail of the alarm, and the dread contracting in the pit of Kenshin's stomach felt like a hot ball of lead.

"_So, have you finished the reproduction?" Kenshin didn't even bother with greetings. Aoshi would have no patience for them and frankly neither did he. There was someone poaching in his territory and he did not like that, but he had a responsibility to find the man's target before he did._

_Aoshi flicked an annoyed glance in his direction before he returned his attention to the tiny basin of brackish water in front of him._

"_He'll be done in a moment." Misao came out of the kitchen drying her hands on her apron. "He's been working on getting a clear image since he got off the phone with you. It's strange; normally making an imprint isn't so difficult." She made a cute moue of frustration. Misao couldn't do anything that wasn't cute. She tried and somehow it made her cuter. "I mean, it's not hard: you call up a spirit, describe what you want and where it is, it goes and makes a copy on the paper you've provided. This is his third try!"_

_Kenshin folded his coat over one arm as he turned to look at Aoshi again. The man was leaned over his desk, all his attention centered on his task. "That's odd." _

Maybe she was upstairs. It wasn't inconceivable that she'd gone upstairs for a nap or was working on her computer with the headphones on. Kenshin bolted up the stairs and vaulted over the banister. He landed in an easy crouch and burst into the bedroom.

The bed was made. It hadn't been disturbed since he and Kaoru had made it that morning. She wasn't here and hadn't been all day. All right. Office… yes, she was in her office. Some faint hope kindled in his chest as he picked up the faint strains of music coming from the room down the hall.

'She's here… she's safe, she's just on the computer and has the headphone turned up and didn't hear me yell or call or destroy the truck or break down the front door…' He rounded the corner ready to scoop her up out of her seat. He would either shake her silly or hold on tight and never let go.

Kenshin lurched to a stop as he took in the dim office and the little alarm clock Kaoru kept in there for when she had a deadline or a conference call. More alarming were the empty file cabinets standing open, the 'full' light blinking on the paper shredder, and the message displayed in pixilated script on Kaoru's monitor reading: Hard Drive Format – Complete. Please insert OS disk.

Moving in a numb haze, Kenshin switched the alarm off. Kaoru clearly didn't need it and never would again.

"_Finally!"_

_Kenshin watched over Aoshi's shoulder as the image slowly sharpened. For a moment he though this might be the seventh spirit image they'd go through, but as the graphite powder swirled through the salty water and settled into a new and different pattern he knew they'd finally succeeded. "The picture must have been spell-protected somehow." He mused. This time it had taken the concentrated effort of all three demons to produce a result._

_The woman in the picture was facing the camera at a three-quarters angle and held her head at the slightly defensive angle that people tended to adopt when they didn't really want to be photographed. Immediately several discrepancies popped up. The resolution of the photo was off. It was almost grainy. As the picture cleared, the grainy quality smoothed out into a sort of softened screen effect that centered on the subject's face and shoulders._

Somehow he made it downstairs without breaking his neck. Kenshin wasn't sure how he'd managed it. It was pure reflex to go into the kitchen. In the entire house, he considered the kitchen to be his primary space. It was where he went to think…

The note on the refrigerator fluttered in a soft breeze that blew in from the open backdoor.

_The woman's hair was styled in a tight pin-curl bob and held back with a silk sash. Kenshin remembered the style as being popular in the Roaring Twenties. In fact, the more he looked, the more positive he became that the picture was actually from back then. The woman wore the kind of square-neck straight-line dress that had gone into mode around the same time. _

"_That's strange, this photograph looks older than the one I saw." Misao mused out loud. "Do you think he used a picture from a relative?"_

"_It is possible." Aoshi allowed and nudged some more power into the spell. The woman's features began to sharpen and Kenshin looked on in interest._

Kenshin read the letter twice without comprehending the message.

Kenshin,

I'm sorry.

Goodbye.

-Kaoru

The demon hit his knees.

_The first thing he thought as he noticed the familiar curve of the woman's jaw was that the woman reminded him of Kaoru. That, however, was nothing new, as most women did in one fashion or another._

_Interest faded into faint pangs of apprehension as he recognized the curve of Kaoru's lips, her eyes, her throat… the image shuddered as the spirit completed its work and departed, leaving Kenshin staring at the photo in sick realization._

"_Aoshi, I need to use your phone…"_

* * *

The shockwave was enough to knock Aoshi flat onto the floor.

For a long while, all the ice demon could do was lay stunned on the cool cement of his garage. His head rung with the combination of rage, agony, and loss that had crashed over him like a psychic tidal wave. His first semi-coherent thought as he managed to stagger through the kitchen door was some odd amalgam of 'where is Misao' and 'what on Earth was That?'

He found Misao in the living room. She was not as sensitive to psychic energies as he was and thus was only a little dizzy. For his part, Aoshi was glad and pulled her into his lap as he collapsed onto the sofa.

"… Aoshi?" Misao held onto him almost as tight as he held onto her. "What just happened."

"I don't know." Words never came easily to Aoshi and that particular phrase was one he had never been fond of. Misao had been with him so long that she deserved nothing less than the truth. "However, I believe it was Himura."

* * *

Petite stopped on a hill roughly two hundred and fifty miles away from Kaoru's property and turned to look back. Kaoru blinked and looked behind her. "What is it, pretty girl? What did you hear?" The poohka shifted uneasily and stomped. "Is it the Justicars?"

If the Justicars were on her tail then Petite wouldn't have been standing here. Kaoru contemplated dismounting and doing a quick scry to make sure Kenshin was all right, but decided against it. The seeing spells were too easy to track and Nuada already knew she was using them for surveillance.

She'd left behind enough of a trail to draw Nuada away from Kenshin. That would have to be enough. If she faltered now then they'd know, and Kenshin would be the one to pay.

'So, in the end that's what being an immortal comes down to.' The skin between Kaoru's shoulder blades felt tight and hot. The place she left behind her was like sunlight on a burn. "For who would lose, though full of pain, this intellectual being, those thoughts that wander through eternity, to perish rather, swallow'd up and lost in the wide womb of uncreated night, devoid of sense and motion?" Old, familiar words made comfortable by the passing of time and repetition, but they didn't have the power to comfort her just then.

"Ah, John. I never thought you'd fail me…" She mused out loud. Petite tossed her head and stamped again. Whatever it was that had gotten her attention, she'd either gotten over it or it had stopped. "All right, let's go girl… unless Timmy's fallen down a well or something?"

Petite turned a virulent gaze in Kaoru's direction. She never had appreciated pop culture humor.

"All right, all right, I'm done. I'll be quiet now." _Kenshin_ appreciated her humor… Kaoru shot that train of thought down before it could do more than sting. Leaving was harder than she'd ever thought possible. 'Damn you, Nuada. I'm going to make you pay for this. I shouldn't have had to lose him this soon."

'I hope he's all right.' A knot of pain coiled up in Kaoru's stomach and she hunched around it. Sometimes she wished that she could maintain the sort of cold aloofness that her race was known for. She wished she could just stop caring…

Then maybe it would stop hurting so much.

* * *

They found Kenshin in much the same position he'd been occupying when the full impact of Kaoru's terse letter hit him, not that Kenshin knew that until later. To him it had seemed like Aoshi and Misao arrived hard on his heel after he tore the house apart looking for his absent lover, but in reality it was actually almost half a day before they managed to recover from the backlash and made it up to the property.

His wings were covered in tacky half-dried blood. Kenshin couldn't even remember when they'd come out, probably when he read the letter, judging from the condition of the kitchen. Near as Kenshin could tell, they must have exploded from his back.

The walls were splattered with blood and a few bits of flesh. No surface had gone unscathed except for the white note that they'd found him hunched over.

"… we'll find her, Kenshin." Misao was keeping up a soothing background of white noise while she tidied his wings. The blood was too set for a spell to clean it without damaging the oils in his pinions. While Misao tended to Kenshin, Aoshi was off collecting evidence to assist in locating Kaoru.

There was no question in anyone's mind that they would help him look. No one had even asked if that was a problem.

Aoshi and Misao might have had different reasons for helping him, but for Kenshin Kaoru had become an intrinsic part of him. There was no going back. He would either find her and bring her home or he would spend the rest of his life (however long that would be without her) as the walking wounded.

"… you'll see. This can all be fixed. We'll find her, bring her home, and get rid of whoever that guy was. Things will go right back to normal and maybe we'll even teach her to like meat because really, what is up with veganism? It's not good for humans, they have incisors, they need meat. How do you get protein like that anyway…?"

Aoshi entered Kenshin's field of vision from the left, coming from the direction of the stairs. He wore the carefully neutral poker-face that he tended to adopt when he'd come up against an unexpected blockade. "She's very good." He informed Kenshin without preamble. "I expected nothing less from your woman. It will take some time to find a viable trace."

"… but the trail is getting cold!" Misao protested from behind Kenshin. Her knuckles were white on the handles of the brushes she'd been using to clean Kenshin's wings.

"Have your trackers come back with anything?" Aoshi countered.

Misao slumped. "No. She didn't walk, drive, or fly out of her. It's like she vanished."

"Did you look to see if she rode out of the area?" Kenshin's gaze snapped up to the open door. "She's pulled the same trick on me many a time." A man stood there, leaning against the frame in a elegant slouch. He grinned as Kenshin's eyes met his.

He was not tall, maybe as tall as Kenshin was when he stood up straight. The man pushed himself away from the doorframe with one gloved hand. He moved with a sort of sinuous animal grace. His hair was black and looked to be professionally tousled. It was his eyes that drew you. They had the depth and shine of fine sapphires.

None of that was relevant as the man's back made a satisfying 'THUD!' as Kenshin slammed it into the back of the door. He barely registered the sound of feet pounding the floor behind him. Instead, he reveled in the expression of mingled surprise and alarm reflected in the newcomer's wide blue eyes.

Kenshin's claws pierced the expensive fabric of the man's shirt as he hauled him up by his collar until his expensive shoes cleared the floor. Kenshin knew he was shifting, but he couldn't care. "Where. Is. She?"

Surprisingly enough, the man never made it out of 'shock' and into 'fear'. Instead a sardonic expression eased over his face. He had the gall to relax against the wall and let Kenshin support him. "If I knew that, then I wouldn't be here talking to you, Demon." He grinned in a manner that women probably found disarming, but it had less than no effect on Kenshin. "I came to give you an offer, but you don't want her back, then just say so and I'll go my merry way."

"There is another option." Aoshi interjected as he reached around Kenshin's bristling form to lock the door behind the newcomer. His tone was casual, casual for Aoshi in any event. "You seem to know much. Allow me to present a counter-offer. Tell us what it is that you know and we will let you live."

"That's a pretty paltry offer, sir." The man cast an eye on Kenshin's hand fisted in his shirt. Then, with a smile he laid his fingers over the demon's wrist and broke it.

Pain was nothing new for Kenshin, but demons are made of sterner stuff than men and their bones are harder. Even he had to stop and take notice. His grip lapsed and the man nimbly darted out of his reach. Kenshin set the shattered bones with a snarl of a spell. The sensation was not unlike how it would have been if the bones in his wrist had all liquefied and then reformed as white-hot steel. His vision blurred for a second.

"I seem to have forgotten my manners." The man struck a pose of studied disinterest as he adjusted one of his gloves. As Kenshin's vision cleared he realized the man was only wearing one, a black leather glove on his right hand. A glint of silver at the wrist drew his gaze and Kenshin scrubbed at his eyes… must have been a watch. "I didn't introduce myself. I am Nuada Ludd. You may call me Nuada."

* * *

_Seiyuu: FINALLY! You'll all be glad to know that the move went well and I've got a new wireless compatible laptop! So, as most of you know, my biggest whine was that I didn't have reliable internet access so I couldn't update. Now I do, ergo... HERE YA GO! grins _


	4. Lhiantyn Rish

**Fancy's Child**

_**A Rurouni Kenshin Fan-fiction**_

**By The Dragon's Daughter**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter Three**

**_Lhiantyn Rish_**

**

* * *

**

_He seemed  
For dignity compos'd and high exploit  
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue  
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear  
The better reason, to perplex and dash  
Maturest counsels.  
- John Milton, Paradise Lost (bk. II, l. 110-112) _

**

* * *

**Nuada plucked a bit of lint from the sleeve of his shirt and dusted down his chest trying to smooth the snags and wrinkles left by Kenshin's claws. 

Aoshi stood a bit further behind Kenshin with an arm around Misao's shoulders. If the ice-demon were to possess anything as tedious as an expression, then it would have been one of distaste. Misao, however, was more honest. She glared at Nuada with all the intensity her tiny body and general good nature could manage.

Kenshin didn't care about any of that.

"Where IS she?" The snarl worked its way up from deep inside Kenshin's stomach and tasted like acid on his tongue. Things were falling into place like pieces of a puzzle, but parts were missing and the image that he could see was almost too frightening to look at. "She ran because of you."

For a moment something that could have been pain flickered across Nuada's face, but it was gone almost as soon as it arrived. "I don't know where she is. I wish I did then this might be easier. She is in danger, but not from me." He let out a short harsh laugh. "I don't think she knows that."

Sensing that Kenshin was perhaps not in the right frame of mind for civilized debate, Aoshi cut in. Nuada eyed him for a moment before recognition sparkled in his eyes. He snapped his fingers with a smile. "I remember you! You were the one who asked to see my picture!"

Something that might have been a grimace made Aoshi's mouth twitch. "Please, do not insult my intelligence, sir. You followed me here because of that, did you not?" It was clearly taking something out of Aoshi's pride to make the admission. "Tell us why you are chasing the girl."

Nuada gave his sleeves a final tug, satisfied that he was back in order. "She might have stolen something that once belonged to me, long ago. It wasn't in my possession any longer when she did, but the owner wants it back… rather badly." Nuada's expression shuttered. "… he might want it badly enough to make matters unpleasant for her and those around her. I would like to reach her first." He broke off with his feckless grin back in perfect place. "In order to do that, I'd like to enlist your help!"

For a long moment, Aoshi weighed the young man with a look, taking the sort of calculated measurement of interior worth that only a man who had spent over a thousand lifetimes cultivating his ability to perceive could. Finally, he turned away. "Please, look elsewhere for help. Any arrangement between us would benefit you first and foremost. I believe I speak for my companions when I say that none of us are anyone's cat's-paw."

"…no, I expect you'd have had a stomach full of that after the Fall." Nuada's voice was soft and somehow resonant. There was something ancient in his voice just then, something beyond the vain young man they'd seen heretofore. There was no recrimination in that voice, no judgment, just a simple observation and a deep ocean of sympathy. Even Aoshi turned to look on Nuada with surprise. However, whatever had come over the man –or whatever part of him had surfaced- was long gone. "Before you brush me off, let me give you a sample of what I have to offer."

Aoshi's gaze flicked towards Kenshin's hot amber one and then to Misao. Kenshin was wound tight as a clock, but possessed enough control to award Aoshi with a terse nod. Misao echoed the motion. Neither of them was happy, but they had no more options than Aoshi did at the time.

He paused to consider the house. It had been stripped of any vestige of the young woman's presence, which was actually impossible. At the very least she should have left dead skin cells on her clothing, hair in her brush, a psychic impression on the walls of her home, or even a bloody fingerprint on the note she'd left Himura. There was none of that in the house and if Aoshi had less faith in his friend then he might have wondered if the woman existed at all.

'Then where are the traces of the person who did leave the note? Who is the girl in the picture? Why is this person here looking for her?' Too many questions, not enough answers. Aoshi knew his fatal flaw, as surely as though he'd analyzed his own character in a Shakespearian tragedy: it was curiosity. This whole situation had whetted his appetite and he knew he could not rest until he'd puzzled out the source of it all.

"All right."

Nuada brightened at the terse assent. "Then come with me, I spotted a valuable resource out in the back. I shouldn't be surprised, but Kaoru was always sharp like that." He trotted to the back door and opened it with the flair of a terminally flamboyant doorman. The only thing he lacked was floppy laces cuffs to accentuate his wrists as he gestured. "Please, follow me!"

Three wary demons followed one dandy out into the back yard. Misao moved up to walk beside Aoshi. She held onto his sleeve with small hands as she watched Nuada's back. "Why are we following this Smarm-osaur?" She used her native ability to speak selectively to Aoshi. Imps had a lot invested in overhearing everything and never being overheard themselves.

"If you have another option then you have my attention." Aoshi replied. "Miss Kamiya seems to run away a great deal. She's gotten very good at it."

"He broke Himura's wrist!" Misao's rejoinder was weak. She knew as well as Aoshi did that the man would have had to do something to establish his equality with Kenshin when he was in… well… when he was in his current state. Even now, the chaos demon was prowling along beside Aoshi and Misao with his sulfurous gaze trained on Nuada, waiting for just one opening.

Kenshin was in no state to be reasoned with. Aoshi knew this and understood it because if something similar had happened to Misao he would have been in a similar state …had, in fact, been in that state on multiple occasions considering his wife's propensity for mayhem.

Neither Aoshi nor Misao had ever been to Kaoru's property before. She lived far out of the common way and Aoshi tended to be more at home in a city environment. Misao often was quickly bored by the countryside and after a few centuries of domesticity with an Imp, Aoshi had learned to avoid that at all costs. So, when Nuada led them out to the most wrecked and disgusting old dry-well that either of them had seen in their long lifetimes it came as something of a surprise.

"What is that?" Misao didn't bother to disguise her feelings on the subject.

Even in his state, Kenshin gave the old well a basilisk eye. "… Kaoru won't part with it. It's a hazard, but she's never allowed it to be filled in."

"As well she should. One must have respect for the old places." Nuada patted the slimy stone. "I can't say that this thing was laid in by the romans, but it's at least one hundred years old. Now, observe…" Nuada produced a wide silver coin of a denomination that Aoshi would be hard pressed to recognize, although it did look familiar. Without further ado, he tossed it into the well.

Aoshi's well-trained ear listened for the eventual 'clink' as it hit bottom… but he heard nothing. Nuada, for his part, just smiled and leaned over the slimy, lichen covered lip of the well. A few beetles and a lizard scurried out of his way.

"Hello, Mother Holle! Guess who?" Nuada called out into the well and his voice echoed, gaining depth and tone as the sound rebounded against the old stone walls.

One of Aoshi's brow ticked up in as much an expression of shock as he would allow himself when the sound of a gravelly old woman's voice came filtering back up from the depths.

"Oh, Firbolg Scat. It's _you_."

* * *

Petite let her off at the docks. Kaoru wasn't sure which dock, but it had to be somewhere on the west coast. Not that it mattered. Kaoru didn't travel by boat or train when she needed to be somewhere. Her next ride was waiting just below the frothy waves that lapped at the shore. 

Kaoru could see the water nymphs dancing below the waters. They laughed their silent laughter at her with twinkling cerulean eyes and waved with webbed fingers. Without hesitation or concern for her bag, Kaoru dove straight in before anyone could notice her. She was under something of a time crunch anyway.

The nymphs had a peculiar racial ability that Kaoru was positive found its root in sympathetic magic. To them all oceans were one. They existed in all parts of the ocean in a semi-permanent state of amalgamation. Sometimes Kaoru wondered if they even experienced time in the same way that she did. The _Tuatha de Danaan_ were less bound by the linear perception of time than, oh say, a human. However, the nymphs were unlike the other lesser fae. Lesser Fae like Petite had a sort of short term memory. They lived more or less in the present, but they could remember certain things for years if they needed to. The water nymphs on the other hand…they always seemed to know something more than what little they let on and they had a reputation for capriciousness that never made sense until later.

All that aside, they were also known to occasionally take a passenger along for the ride. Kaoru –for lack of a better word- dissolved into their embrace. She had a vague sensation of tiny fingers plucking at her pockets until they found the hard candies she'd placed there for them then she was forcibly ejected from the water and staggered onto a rocky shore.

Kaoru hit her knees and took several long gulping breaths as her fingers curled into the gravelly beach. Once she felt like she had her breath back, Kaoru rolled over onto her bottom and surveyed the landscape around her.

The island was small and desolate. There was some sea-grass that grew up from the stony soil among the sharp jutting rocks. A thick velvety mist covered the ground and obliterated anything more than a few body-lengths in any direction. Kaoru knew from memory that the altitude of the island rose sharply and then bottomed out into a small valley in the center. Now living in more enlightened times, Kaoru realized that their tiny island had probably been a volcano at one point, but now it was long dead.

There was birdsong in the distance and the soft rustle of wind in the trees. Kaoru set off towards the center of the island. She had a pretty good idea of where she was. Things had changed somewhat since the last time she'd visited, but only inasmuch as anything changed on Avalon.

She knew she was getting close when shadows began to appear in the mist around her; large hulking things that lumbered along beside her, but did not call out or speak. They were just her escort, the island's way of welcoming her home.

The guardians followed her until just over the crest of the basin, and then they began to drop off one by one until only one remained with her. Smaller figures began to appear in its wake. Lithe and quick they darted in and out of her range of vision like ghosts.

Closer to the interior, the mist began to thin down until there was only the lightest layer on the ground that pooled and swirled around Kaoru's ankles.

The compound was somewhat larger than Kaoru remembered. There was the central temple, the refectory, the solar, and the meditation chambers just the way they'd always been, but someone had added in a dormitory and enlarged the kitchen gardens. There was an orchard a bit further out and a lovely little ornamental pool. "Nimue has been busy…" Kaoru mused.

The stillness of the day was broken by a childish squeal. Kaoru watched a tiny young girl in novitiate robes dash into the Courtyard followed by an older woman with her skirts kilted up to bare her legs while she chased the child.

She had to smile. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

There was a time not so long ago that Kaoru had been the one chasing a child around that same court. The older woman was tall and slim with light brown hair held back in a braid that extended all the way down her back where it met her knees.

"Ho! Nimue!" Kaoru took delight in the unladylike squawk the elder Priestess let out when she was surprised. The novice took advantage of her temporary reprieve to make a bolt for it past Kaoru. With practiced ease, Kaoru caught the girl-child around the waist in the crook of her arm and hefted her sideways so that all she could do was kick helplessly and in the most undignified manner possible.

Nimue's hands flew to her mouth and hair. "My Lady! This is so unexpected…" Nimue frantically worked at the knot holding her skirts up. Finally, she snarled a spell as the stubborn cord and her skirts fell down to cover her feet. "… we had not time to prepare your room, oh… and the children… oh dear…"

To clarify, Nimue was not Merlin's legendary lover. She had in fact been named for her. Kaoru's island had always been a refuge for the gifted women of the world and Nimue had been born with the Gift of Sight. Once, the practice of leaving change children in exchange for human newborns had been something of a fad among those in the Eternal Court, but Kaoru had always kept up the practice.

The Sisterhood of Nine had all been similar rescues, although the original nine had long since passed on to their final reward. Avalon was known as a place of healing and tranquility, especially for those with the burden of being born with a Gift that made living in the mortal world a nightmare.

These days, change children were only left in exchange for a Gifted child and if the child was female and of a certain Gift then she came to Avalon. The others all went to be fostered among Daghda Ollathir's court. The girls who came to the Isle of Mist all possessed the Sight in some form, either they saw Truth or possessed Far Sight. Some, like Nimue, possessed Foresight, as capricious and fickle a talent as it was.

Nimue hurried over to Kaoru and grabbed for her bag. Kaoru held it out of reach. "Now, now. Why don't you take the sprog and I'll get my own bag?" Kaoru grinned at the expression of mild panic on Nimue's face as she remembered the toddler under Kaoru's arm.

"I am so very sorry, My Lady. I don't know what's gotten into her… oh, oh you've never met Chariste. Stand up, you naughty thing and curtsey!" Nimue's small slender hands flew over the child, righting her sleeves and dusting her clean. She thrust the child forward, keeping a hand on her shoulder so the tot couldn't escape. "_Now_, Christa." She growled _sotto voce_.

Christa peered up at Kaoru with the sort of clear, unhurried gaze of a Truthseeker. Kaoru winked down at the girl who smiled in return and bobbed a sloppy curtsey. "You're HER! Aww… Trixie is gonna be soooo jealous, I met the Lady and she didn't! Are you gonna stay? Trixie always wanted to meetcha so you gotta stay, at least for Dinner because that would be so cool!"

'Trixie', Kaoru recalled, was Tirana, one of the younger novitiates. There were three at the moment according to Nimue's quarterly reports. The last was a druid child as so was probably out in the orchards with Sisters Thyme and Rue. Trixie had the gift of Farsight and so would be taking classes with Christa under Nimue and Sister Roxana.

…classes that Christa seemed to be skipping.

"Hmmm… its midday, I thought classes would be in session." Kaoru mused as she shouldered her bag. She cast an eye on Christa, who suddenly found something fascinating on the ground in the vicinity of her toes. "Are the novices not in lessons?"

Nimue squared her shoulders and dropped in a curtsey. "We were on our way there as you arrived, My Lady. I will stop in the kitchens and let Sister Betilde know that you have arrived. Please, the guest quarters are made up an available. I hope they will suit your needs until we arrange the solar."

"That's fine. I'll stay in the guest suite if it's free. I'll only be staying the night. I'm on my way to see Lugh." Kaoru would have been worried about the expression that flickered across Nimue's face at the mention of the Craftsman if she didn't know exactly what the root of Nimue's feelings on the subject was. Foresight could be a pain, as the Priestess was prone to saying. "Come see me after dinner and we'll talk, if you like."

It was not an explicit offer of help, but Nimue caught the hint. She bowed again and shooed Christa inside the temple.

Kaoru eyed the shadows flickering to and fro at the outermost edge of the compound. They tended to fade as one focused on them, but Kaoru had gotten the knack of watching them long ago. 'It's been such a long time since I've been in Annwn.' Kaoru mused to herself as she trudged up to the guest house out in the back of the refectory. Avalon wasn't quite Underhill, but it had been pulled so deeply into the mists and ether that it might as well have been. After a few centuries it had the same _feel_ to it.

'I'm homesick.' Kaoru realized it with a start. She missed Annwn. How strange, after four or five decades away from home it only took a subtle reminder to bring the memory back in full force. 'I've always been closer to the human world than the Underhill. Perhaps that's why I never really noticed.'

The guest quarters were Spartan in their décor, but Kaoru didn't mind. The bed was soft and there was a tub that could be filled for a good long soak. The dinner bell wouldn't ring for another five hours. 'That means I have time for a bath before I face Betilde and a nap afterwards.'

* * *

"… now, Mother Holle, be reasonable." Nuada ducked to dodge the stone that went flying out of the depths of the well. "I just have a single innocent question! I come in all sincerity!" 

"Why are we still here again?" Misao whispered as an aside to Aoshi who maintained silent neutrality.

For his part, Kenshin had managed to cool down somewhat in the intervening hour that Nuada had been attempting to sweet talk Kaoru's disgusting old well… or rather, the old German well-spirit who lived in it. He recognized the name from his time in Europe, although the cantankerous old woman in the well bore little resemblance to the benevolent earth spirit of the old legends. Somehow, Kenshin doubted that this Mother Holle was likely to grant anyone a shower of gold. The bucket of tar dumped over their head was a distinct possibility however.

He wasn't sure what to make of the fact that Nuada apparently knew Mother Holle living in Kaoru's well. He wasn't sure what think about Kaoru's keeping the well in the first place. Had she known the well was inhabited? She'd never exhibited any knowledge of the supernatural world before then…

Then there was the matter of Nuada. At first glance he came off as an ineffectual fop, for lack of a better descriptor. However, no fop had the power to break a normal human's wrist, much less a demon's denser bone structure.

There were too many questions rising in Kaoru's absence and Kenshin didn't like any of them.

He rubbed his wrist in thought as he watched Nuada attempt to wheedle the well-spirit. The stranger had been right when he said that they lacked other options. Kenshin trusted Aoshi when he said the site had been sanitized and Misao showed the strain of maintaining multiple 'bloodhounds' on the corporeal plane. They were still searching, but Kenshin knew as well as any that if they didn't have something within the hour then they would never find a trail.

Nuada straightened and scowled at the well. "Now see here, you've accepted my silver, _Frau Holle_. Cease this immediate… ack!" Nuada staggered back as a silver orb went spinning out of the well and hit him square in the eye.

"Then take your silver back and go on your way, insolent boy!"

Aoshi's shoulders twitched in a silent laugh and he stepped forward as Nuada fell back. The ice demon let the man fall and unbuckled the silver watch from his wrist. "Are you there, Madam Holle?" Aoshi stood at perfect polite attention, leaning forward as he awaited a reply.

"Aye, I'm here for what it's worth." The gravelly old spirit replied. "What do you want?"

The silver watch glittered in the dying light as Aoshi held it up. "I have a gift for you, will you accept it?"

There came a thoughtful pause from the well. "Keep your silver, young man. To hear proper manners from a man… or demon of your generation is worth more than mere metal to me. Now, what is it that you need that you need to call up old Mother Holle?"

"Thank you. There is a young lady who lived in this house. She has gone missing. Can you tell us where she has gone?" Aoshi's brows lifted at the sound of rusty laughter that was his reply.

"You'll have to be more specific, young man." Mother Holle chortled. "I am many and vast. I live in all the Old Places. Where are _you_?"

"New England outside the home of a young woman name Kaoru…" Aoshi was prepared to go on, but Mother Holle cut him off there.

"You can stop there." The old spirit heaved a sigh. "You're not the first to ask me about her, you know? I didn't tell them where to find her and you'll have some work to do if you want me to tell you."

Nuada stiffened. "Who asked about the girl, Mother Holle?" He demanded.

For once the spirit didn't even bother with a cranky rejoinder. "You know who has asked about her, young man. Don't ask me questions you already know the answers to. Now, name me one good reason I should tell you and your friends a damn thing."

Aoshi glanced at Kenshin, who paused for a moment and then nodded. The ice demon placed a hand on the lip of the well. "She left without leaving word. There are those who are… concerned for her." Words of that kind had never come easily for Aoshi. Being naturally reticent, words of any kind had never become without effort. Because many situations had required Aoshi to be able to talk his way out in the past, he'd forced himself to gain a certain level of eloquence… but some things, the important things he'd never been able to say.

Mother Holle made a rude noise. "Oh never mind. Tell the idiot… no the OTHER idiot, the one with the red hair, to come over here. I want a word with him."

Kenshin approached the well and placed his hands on the lichen covered stone. He had so many questions, but he had a feeling that Mother Holle was in a far from forgiving mood. "I am here." He still felt full to brimming of mixed emotions: rage, worry, hurt, and fear. The only thing he could focus on was the need to have Kaoru back in his arms, safe where she belongs… possibly with whoever was threatening her in several pieces at his feet.

"You're an idiot, boy." The well spirit snapped. "Don't think I don't know about you, I do, and you're an idiot…" Mother Holle pause for a breath and softened her voice. "… but you're a well-meaning idiot, which is more than I can say for most. You go after the girl and make her face her demons. She runs away far too much. Tell the crown-idiot over there to take you to the Island of Apples. You'll find here there or at least pick up her trail."

"Thank you." Kenshin didn't want to thank the old German spirit, but the well had gone silent. He could almost feel her absence. A fine tremor worked its way through his shoulders. The Island of Apples… where the hell would that be? He turned a look on Nuada who had his disarming grin back in place. "Well?" He growled.

"The Island of Apples… somehow I'm not surprised, but she won't stay there long. If we hurry, we can probably catch her." Nuada cocked his head at a thoughtful angle. "If she's going there then she must have something in mind. She wouldn't have left a trail that might endanger the sisters there…" He trailed off as he realized that he was the focus of several intent stares. "What?"

"Where is this place?" Aoshi resumed his role as spokesperson for their group.

Nuada smiled. "Well, the Island of Apples used to be a part of the Inner Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. Of course, that was a long time ago before the Lady Morgen closed it off from the world and drew it back into the mists as a retreat for her sisterhood. The island is almost more Underhill than it is in the Fields of Man, but it has long since been a sanctuary for women of power and vision."

Misao and Kenshin only exchanged baffled expressions, but Aoshi's job lifted a fraction of an inch.

"… you are jesting, sir." His tone was icy. "We are not here to play games."

"Oh, now be reasonable… you're a _demon_: Hellfire, brimstone, and Thou Shalt Not!" Nuada tucked his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Surely a little fairy tale come to life shouldn't surprise you so much. It's a real place, I assure you of that."

"What are you talking about, Aoshi?" Misao tugged on her lover's sleeve. "What fairy tale?"

Aoshi's expression did not change. "He's referring to the island in the mists where the Sisterhood of Nine was thought to live. The island to which Morgen le Faye bore wounded King Arthur when he was wounded in battle so that he would be healed." He paused for a breath and Nuada broke in.

"Be blunt, man." Nuada winked at Misao. "He means Avalon."

* * *

End Chapter Four : Lhiantyn Rish 

_

* * *

Seiyuu: Well, here's Chapter Four! This is where I feel that the core of the story starts to shine. At the beginning, it's probably not very clear that most of this story is based off of Celtic Mythology. Hopefully, things are beginning to make sense now. _

_Of course, I'm not sticking to the rote version of the legends. What I'm trying to do is show how things **might** have happened and how they were perceived by the humans who witnessed them. There is a certain decay of information when it is passed on through any media, especially the verbal tradition. So it's kind of fun to take this immortal race and then contrast them against their own legends._

_A lot of the time you find that the Fae/Fairies/Aes Sidhe/Tuatha de Danaan are portrayed as a stagnant race left clinging to the shadows of an age long gone. I do think that some of them might have trouble letting go of their old glory day _**coughDISPATERcoughhack**_ However, by and large, a race of immortals would have to either embrace change or face death. However, no group is perfect and there's always going to be dissenters so it'll be fun to place with their court politics later on. I'm already having fun putting together a plausible social structure for them. Later on, I'll go into that in more depth. For right now enjoy the cranky German well spirit._

_For those of you with questions about the mythological characters I've used so far I recommend that you go check out the Encyclopedia Mythica. It's got a good interface that lets you pick out characters by name. The information there isn't terrible in-depth, but it gives you a rough idea and a direction to go in. Please, bear in mind that my representation of the Tuatha de Danaan is going to be pretty removed from what you find on your own. This is my own interpretation of how things _might_ have gone. There are also cross-cultural characters like Dispater, who actually started life as a member of the Roman pantheon; however he did have something of a following in Britain. Proserpina is actually Persephone from the Greek myth. She enjoyed some time as a popular figure during the Renaissance. So really, there's a wealth of information out there and a thousand ways to interpret it._

_I'll provide a quick translation of the chapter title as well. It's a bit different from the others, but it just seemed to stick. _

_**lhiantyn rish **_

_pursue, stick to, cling (of garment), cleave, persevere _


End file.
